How many online retailers did you visit within the last month? The answer is likely many. Although brick-and-mortar retailers have since reopened after being forced to close last year, the effects of the pandemic — namely shifting consumers’ habits — are still present. Due to this shift, e-commerce platform Cart.com has seen significant growth with revenue soaring by more than 400 percent since January.
This growing demand led Cart.com, a Houston-based startup with a large presence in Austin, to raise additional capital. On Wednesday, the company announced it raised a $98 million Series B, bringing its total capital raised to $140 million since launching last November.
“The company has demonstrated the ability to execute in a marketplace that is expanding exponentially and it takes large amounts of capital to build out our end-to-end ecosystem to serve our brands,” Mike Svatek, chief product officer at Cart.com, told Built In via email. “To take this market traction to the next level requires a solid senior team, a viable GTM strategy and lots of capital — we now have all three.”
Cart.com’s end-to-end e-commerce platform is used by online retailers of various sizes, and features an online store software and digital marketing services. It is also used for payments, sales, fulfillment and customer service.
“At Cart.com, we believe e-commerce brands should be free to scale up without having to juggle countless outside vendors and without compromising their unique vision for their brand,” Omair Tariq, CEO of Cart.com, said in a statement. “Our one-stop platform supports sellers across the full range of e-commerce functionality, empowering them to efficiently scale up and reach new markets using proven, best-of-breed services and technologies.”
The recent Series B round was led by Oak HC/FT with participation from PayPal Ventures, Clearco, Mercury Fund, Moonshots Capital, Arsenal Growth and others. Funds from this round will allow Cart.com to improve its fulfillment services and accelerate growth.
Growing Cart.com’s 250-person team is also on the horizon. Cart.com has 140 employees in Austin with plans to hire 75 in engineering, product, sales and marketing in the next six to 12 months, Svatek said. In the meantime, the startup is actively hiring for dozens of roles.
A portion of funds from the Series B round will be used to acquire additional businesses. Cart.com has already acquired seven companies and plans to buy three or four more later this year, Svatek said.
Cart.com processes more than $700 million in gross merchandise value each year and serves over 2,000 e-commerce brands, including GNC, Haymaker Coffee and KeHE, which distributes Kikkoman soy sauce.
